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A review by krisrid
The Cocoa Conspiracy by Andrea Penrose
5.0
I loved the first book in this series, and book 2 was even better!
I absolutely love Arianna. She is a strong, smart, capable and independent woman in world where women are expected to be decorative at best. The back-story the author has given her makes it entirely plausible that Arianna would be able to do the things she does and I love everything about her. Her insistence on being involved in the action and danger that she and her newly acquired husband find themselves involved in made for a delightful read that kept me glued to the eReader the whole way through.
I also enjoyed the romance between Arianna and Sandro, as they come to terms with the fact that while their marriage may have started as a convenience for them both, it has developed into a genuine love between them. The fact that both of them take some time to realize and admit that they actually love each other was a fun and entertaining side-plot as they each battled their own inner demons about love and trust.
The action and intrigue component of the book was excellent as well. Exciting, well conceived and plenty of real historical activities and people made for a very engaging story for the characters to navigate through.
The supporting characters do their jobs well. From Henning as Sandro's best friend, to the various political big-wigs, everyone plays their part to add colour and layering to the rest of the plot and story.
My one gripe with this was the atrocious lack of copy-editing in the eBook version [which was the only version I was able to obtain, having read book one as a physical printed book]. There were multiple grammar errors, missing words, wrong words, etc., in every single chapter, and as a grammar and editing nerd, this seriously affected my reading enjoyment by distracting me continually as the errors jumped out and poked me in the eye every time they occurred. I still loved the book, but whoever is responsible for the epublishing of this book should be ashamed of themselves for charging $5.99 for such bad quality. Regardless of the format, the book should be properly edited if you are going to charge people good money for it. One or two minor text or grammar errors can be overlooked, but this book was LITTERED with errors. Shame on the publishers, because this reflects on the author and does not do her wonderful writing the justice deserved.
Aside from that one irritant, I loved this book, and look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy, which I have already purchased. This is a favourite historical fiction, Regency era series.
I absolutely love Arianna. She is a strong, smart, capable and independent woman in world where women are expected to be decorative at best. The back-story the author has given her makes it entirely plausible that Arianna would be able to do the things she does and I love everything about her. Her insistence on being involved in the action and danger that she and her newly acquired husband find themselves involved in made for a delightful read that kept me glued to the eReader the whole way through.
I also enjoyed the romance between Arianna and Sandro, as they come to terms with the fact that while their marriage may have started as a convenience for them both, it has developed into a genuine love between them. The fact that both of them take some time to realize and admit that they actually love each other was a fun and entertaining side-plot as they each battled their own inner demons about love and trust.
The action and intrigue component of the book was excellent as well. Exciting, well conceived and plenty of real historical activities and people made for a very engaging story for the characters to navigate through.
The supporting characters do their jobs well. From Henning as Sandro's best friend, to the various political big-wigs, everyone plays their part to add colour and layering to the rest of the plot and story.
My one gripe with this was the atrocious lack of copy-editing in the eBook version [which was the only version I was able to obtain, having read book one as a physical printed book]. There were multiple grammar errors, missing words, wrong words, etc., in every single chapter, and as a grammar and editing nerd, this seriously affected my reading enjoyment by distracting me continually as the errors jumped out and poked me in the eye every time they occurred. I still loved the book, but whoever is responsible for the epublishing of this book should be ashamed of themselves for charging $5.99 for such bad quality. Regardless of the format, the book should be properly edited if you are going to charge people good money for it. One or two minor text or grammar errors can be overlooked, but this book was LITTERED with errors. Shame on the publishers, because this reflects on the author and does not do her wonderful writing the justice deserved.
Aside from that one irritant, I loved this book, and look forward to reading the final book in the trilogy, which I have already purchased. This is a favourite historical fiction, Regency era series.